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Too much at night

DS has been nursing constantly all day for the past few days. Sitting here reading the posts of the day I realized how engored I'm getting from him constantly nursing during daytime hours. Just wondering why so much engorgement at night when I nurse on demand? I have only given him a bottle 3 times over the course of two months. I don't plan on giving bottles unless I'm going out without DS. Does anyone know how long it will take for the engorgement to go away cause I can't suffer a third bout of mastitis. The last time was so bad I almost need to have the duct drained in the hospital. So should I express some of the milk or let it be? Thanks for any advice.

Re: Too much at night

Originally Posted by sheena137

DS has been nursing constantly all day for the past few days. Sitting here reading the posts of the day I realized how engored I'm getting from him constantly nursing during daytime hours. Just wondering why so much engorgement at night when I nurse on demand? I have only given him a bottle 3 times over the course of two months. I don't plan on giving bottles unless I'm going out without DS. Does anyone know how long it will take for the engorgement to go away cause I can't suffer a third bout of mastitis. The last time was so bad I almost need to have the duct drained in the hospital. So should I express some of the milk or let it be? Thanks for any advice.

Sheena, if I have read this correctly, your baby is two months old and you still have so much milk that you feel like you are engorged.
Yes, you should certainly pump or express enough milk to feel comfortable. The trick is not to pump TOO much, because that will only make it worse.

We have a lot of information about dealing with oversupply on our website. Please check out the articles I have listed in this post:

Re: Too much at night

I actually have gotten rid the inital engorgement, this particular engorgement is from ds nursing every two hours as opposed to every three hours about a few days ago. So I was just wondering if the continuous nursing during the day is causing the engorgment late at night cause he goes from 7pm ish till 1am ish and then not again till around 7am ish. So should I still just express enough to feel comfortable? as I did state can't handle another bout of mastitis and this very thing is what caused it the last time. Thanks for any extra advice.

Re: Too much at night

I would definately pump to be comfortable. When Jolene started going longer stretches at night I would pump some off before I went to bed and it wouldn't be so horrible when she got up 7 hours later. Hopefully you'll start to lose the engorgement. I'm nursing on demand also and find finally evened out about a week ago. Jolene goes to bed anywhere between 10-12 and is up about 6 or 7 and I feel full, but not engorged. If Cole is in a consistent pattern, I would think it would go away soon.

Re: Too much at night

The engorgement that you are experiencing at night is directly related to the change in baby's nursing patterns at night. Milk supply is all about supply and demand. Your body will provide the supply at the time your baby demands it. So if he's nursing more during the day (most likely because he's starting to go longer stretches and night), your daytime supply will increase, not your night time supply. Like the others have mentioned, pump some milk off at night if you are too uncomfortable. But as supply and demand goes, the less demand at night will equate into less supply at night and your engorgement should subside with about 48-72 hours. Since you may be prone to mastitis, be sure to work out any plugged ducts should you feel any.